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Pomeroy flew the two C-117D Super Gooneys and the one C-47 (sometimes two aboard) we also had two C-45's assigned-I don't recall him every flying one of those. We hauled mostly cargo and personnel, with some vip's moved in the C-47 on occasion. As I recall a fellow named Stanley was the boss of the C-131 a Lt Commander-that aircraft was in a world of its own, explicitly for the use of the Commander Naval Forces Europe in London, at his every wish and beckon. It had its own personally assigned E-8 and E-9 for maintaining and crewing it-the Master Chief taxied it wherever it needed to be positioned. ( yes maintain, they performed almost all the work on it). Us sailors did lots of polishing of the "bird" therefore didn't appreciate its presence much. It would have been a rare occasion for Pomeroy to have flown on it, could have, I just don't recall any such event.

Larry,

I'm thinking there were around 12-15 Nap's in 1969-I can come up with 10 easily. The last four Marine NAP's retired the same day in January 1973-Master Gunnery Sergeant's Joseph Conroy, Robert Lurie (17,600 hours), Leslie Erickson, and Patrick O'Neill. Last Coast Guard NAP Master Chief John P. Greathouse retired February 1979 (14,000 plus hours). Leland Pomeroy, Merton Jackson, Ralph Carr, Kenneth Milburn, and R. K. Jones were active Navy NAP'S. Ralph Carr was the only Senior Chief, rest being Master Chief's. Ralph Carr and Merton Jackson in 1967 made undoubtedly the US Military's last all Enlisted Crew flight, ferrying a P3A from East Coast to West Coast-Carr was Pilot in Command. All Enlisted Crews were not out of the norm much of the early periods of NAP history, but by the 1950's were something to behold, as was rare by then. There was an all enlisted combat crew during Korea, PPC Patrol Plane Commander was a First Class Petty Officer NAP (E-6) flying the PB4Y Navy single tailed B-24. In 1955 there were around 600 NAP'S onboard-that year some 321 were commissioned, that cut down the numbers significantly, from then on it was just a matter of time for the era of the NAP to end. That end was in January 1981 when my Friend Master Chief Robert K. Jones (13,000 plus hours) went on the retired list. He had been the NATOPS evaluator for the C-131 worldwide, anyone requiring a "check ride" flew with him.

Pomeroy was a Senior Chief part of that time, he was advanced to Master Chief during my tour at Mildenhall.

Quinn, Thanks for the clarification. Very interesting stuff.

In 1957/58 I encountered a Marine NAP. Received a call that a transit USMC FJ3 had landed and was requesting fuel and lox. I was dispatched to service lox on the transit jet. When I pulled up to the aircraft there was a typical USMC Gunny getting out of his flight suit. Underneath he was in sharply creased khakis with a high and dry salt and pepper crew cut. He wouldn't allow me or the refueling crew close to the aircraft. He serviced it himself. And secured it for the night. I didn't know what to make of all this. Had no idea there was such a thing as enlisted pilots. I was thinking has this guy stolen the aircraft? I'm guessing that the next morning he caused quite a stir in base ops when he filed his flight plan. There was quite an audience as he got ready to depart .

On a similar note when DOD consolidated navigator training at Mather AFB, and Navy and USMC enlisted troops started to show up the school was beside itself. Enlisted navigators-OMG.

The Navy had several great programs in those days. One that comes to mind was the LDO. Another was the ability to retire with credit for 20 years service while only serving 19 1/2 years. My sister-in--laws husband began his career as an enlisted sailor, became a WO, then an LDO and finally retired a Master Chief.

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Mr. Marine C-130! Henry Wildfang went through the Aviation Cadet Program in 1941/42-designated a Naval Aviator/Second Lt of Marines. Served in transport squadrons in combat areas and perhaps the PBJ (B-25) in Pacific. After release from active duty in 1946, he resigned a Major's commission and enlisted-reenlisted after almost 90 days as a Master sergeant and designated a Naval Aviation Pilot. Appointed to WO-1 (Naval Aviator) in 1960-most interested folks know his history including Khe Sahn and Gray Eagle award as the senior Naval Aviator on active duty. Gunner Wildfang is one of the Few/Several NAP'S I have found that came into the NAP program through the back door so as to say. Already completed flight training and being experienced pilots with no Officer billets available, they could thread the needle back in by going into the NAP ranks. I have found some that were allowed in via this route After the NAP program was shut down in 1947-just that they didn't go through flight training as NAP'S!

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I think he later took a commission. I know he was in VR-24 at Port Laoty(sp?) now Kenitra Morroco.

He said that some of his friends were offered commisions and turned them down to stay enlisted.

Bob

Sourced up some info on him-enlisted in Navy 1937, flight school 1940, designated NAP in late 1941. In 1943 commissioned as a LTJG. Flew with a "Black Cat" PBY outfit in the Pacific. Flew in Berlin Airlift, and was in VR-24 in Morocco, and then Naples, Italy. Retired 1957-flew with a University for some 14 years, then Southwest Airlines. Snapshot of his career, states 10,000 hours military and 19,000 plus civilian hours-if true that's a bunch. Joined the Great Majority in June 1987.

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He flew Dc-3's DC-6's and DC-9's for Purdue University Airlines before coming to SW Airlines in 1971.

He was the number one Captain at SW until he retired. He then worked in operations and later became a dispatcher.

About 1990 we were on a sunset cruise up off Cape Cod. Ran into a bunch of guys wearing VR-24 caps at the bar. I asked if they knew Hal and they all did. Then they surprised us and we met Betty, Hal's widow. She had come to the VR-24 Reunion.

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In 1957/58 I encountered a Marine NAP. Received a call that a transit USMC FJ3 had landed and was requesting fuel and lox. I was dispatched to service lox on the transit jet. When I pulled up to the aircraft there was a typical USMC Gunny getting out of his flight suit. Underneath he was in sharply creased khakis with a high and dry salt and pepper crew cut. He wouldn't allow me or the refueling crew close to the aircraft. He serviced it himself. And secured it for the night. I didn't know what to make of all this. Had no idea there was such a thing as enlisted pilots. I was thinking has this guy stolen the aircraft? I'm guessing that the next morning he caused quite a stir in base ops when he filed his flight plan. There was quite an audience as he got ready to depart .

On a similar note when DOD consolidated navigator training at Mather AFB, and Navy and USMC enlisted troops started to show up the school was beside itself. Enlisted navigators-OMG.

The Navy had several great programs in those days. One that comes to mind was the LDO. Another was the ability to retire with credit for 20 years service while only serving 19 1/2 years. My sister-in--laws husband began his career as an enlisted sailor, became a WO, then an LDO and finally retired a Master Chief.

Larry

Fascinating story of military aviation history-all the active duty types that I encounter are completely dumbfounded when told that indeed Enlisted Men flew military aircraft. Since this is a C-130 thread, perhaps someone with the know how could come up with a site dedicated to the Enlisted Pilot, Army/AAF/Navy/Marines/Coast Guard The stories out there like yours are legion, if they aren't told, and seeing as the Officers wrote most of the history, it will be lost. I have written to various entities, down through the years, many are always crowing about the Tuskegee Airmen, telling them there is another just as Rare facet of military aviation,that is virtually completely ignored-the Enlisted Pilot. One could wonder it the Marine NAP was just showing that he could perform the servicing duties alone to folks that he knew would be greatly impressed. I have many interesting stores along the line of yours-including many instances in WW11 of Shore Patrol accosting NAP sailors and Marines on liberty for impersonating officers by wearing pilot's wings.

The navigators-In an aircraft ferry squadron I was in for a short time (VRF-31) they would hire a Gunnery Sergeant navigator on occasions for long distance deliveries. To me it is foolish to have Air Force and Navy flight training together (if they are still doing that) both services lose their identity and special camaderie established over many many years of doing it they own way!

At Mildenhall there was also a Lt/Lcdr up from the NAP ranks via the Limited Duty Officer (LDO) program Arthur Beatty, but of course Sir by me-Good officer and pilot he was. The Constructive Time gained by re-enlisting 3 to 6 months early surely made it shorter to the 20 year mark-I think that has been sent to Davy Jones Locker now. I climbed in to the officer ranks via the LDO aviation maintenance program just shy of 16 years-I made sure to remain a Temporary officer, also retiring as a permanent Master Chief and temporary Lcdr. I always thought the Air Force was wrong in not allowing folks to climb up without a college degree. Anyway, the Army Air Force in WW11 had its very own famous NAP, a combat veteran, inventor extraordinary and genuine colorful character, had a book written by a General about him, as well as mentioned many times in the General's own biography

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I don't know if I've said anything on here or not but three years ago Bob Patterson (as in MG Bob Patterson) was with us in Warner Robins for the TCTAA convention. After breakfast on Sunday morning I was sitting with him, George Dockery and a couple of others when he brought up the Meyer incident. Bob was a major at the time and was in Germany as a TAC representative. He briefed TAC commander Gen. William Momyer on the incident. Bob says that all of the crap about him being shot down, etc. and etc. is all bullshit. (I've seen the incident report - I've got it somewhere and it says the same thing.) Bob says he believes that Meyer failed to pressurize the airplane and became hypoxic and passed out because his flying became erratic during the final minutes before he crashed.

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I may have already posted this link, but if I did, here it is again. Several years ago someone sent me the accident report of the Meyer incident. A couple of years ago I uploaded it to the Internet. Here is the link - www.sammcgowan.com/meyers.html. If you've never read it, read it.

Remember one thing about the military - it is the most massive rumor mill in the world, ever.

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I may have already posted this link, but if I did, here it is again. Several years ago someone sent me the accident report of the Meyer incident. A couple of years ago I uploaded it to the Internet. Here is the link - www.sammcgowan.com/meyers.html. If you've never read it, read it.

Remember one thing about the military - it is the most massive rumor mill in the world, ever.

I just read through the incident report and note that the transcription of the radio communications are not included. I have read it and I thought I had it. Meyer's last words to his wife were, i.e. "It looks like I've got a problem. I'll be right back after I take care of it."

What I posted goes back several computers. Someone, I forgot who, sent me the report back in late 2000 or early 2001 and I downloaded it onto my Compaq desk top. I replaced that computer with a DELL three or four years ago. The transcript may be on it. If I can find it, I'll upload it. If anyone else has it, perhaps they can upload it. The conversation with General Patterson was three years ago in October 2012 in Warner Robins. I believe Bob is planning to attend the TC/TAA convention in Little Rock this coming May. We were just BSing when he brought the incident up. Bob was one of those involved with the investigation. Although he was based at Lockbourne at the time, he was TDY to USAFE HQ and volunteered to brief General Momyer, the TAC commander, on the incident when he got to Germany. Momyer was very concerned about the morale of the troops and the incidents that led up to Meyer's actions.

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Just came home from a vacation in Vancover and Victoria. While in Victoria we took a bus tour to Buchart Gardens. Th driver was English and I mentioned I had a business there in the 90's and was TDY to Mildenhall in the 60's. He mentioned he worked for a newspaper near Mildenhall and had reported on the Paul Myer's story. I mentioned that it was still a topic on the C-130 forum. We had a nice discussion and it was quite a coincidence. He remembered Paul's name. Seems a really small world sometimes.

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I was wondering if anyone has any info on a story about a crew chief taking off on one of the planes stationed at Mildenhall. I was stationed there 96-98 and that story surfaced. Any truth to that? Also, it was said that the plane was shot down. Thanks

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I was an asst. crew chief on B-47s in the 509th BW at Pease AFB in the 60s when Paul showed up as a brand new 3 level. He was assigned to me for his 5 level training. Paul was an intelligent guy with a great sense of humor. He fell off the right wing tip and shattered his elbow on his first day on the flightline! He went through his 5 level training with flying colors. I was so saddened upon hearing of his death. I contacted his son a few years back and they were in the process of having some divers trying to locate the wreckage. I never heard how they made out. If anyone knows anything i sure would like to know. Richard E. Warrell (warrell.richard@yahoo.com) Thank you!

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I contacted his son a few years back and they were in the process of having some divers trying to locate the wreckage. I never heard how they made out. If anyone knows anything i sure would like to know.

Hi Richard,

I'm one of the guys involved in the search. Just registered on here purely to let you know that once we get a decent break in the weather the physical search will commence. We think the story deserves an ending and hope one day to be able to tell his family why Paul never made it home. As others have pointed out, there's so many rumours around that it's hard to know what to believe so we take it all in and keep an open mind.

There's a lot going on around the search, hopefully I can come back in a little while and give you a link once we've got everything edited and ready for publication. The transcripts of the radio communication would be great if these could be located again, I know what it's like changing computers and losing files though.

Sorry I couldn't go into too much detail now, I'll update you once the website is published which will have more information.

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Sorry for the delay. If you hadn't already seen the various news items on this, here's a link to the website: www.findingmeyersherc.com

Although there's currently a lot more of the detail on the actual Kickstarter campaign page, which is here :-

Hopefully any questions you may have will be answered on there. As you can see, we're not trying to raise a silly amount, just enough to cover fuel cost to get us out to the search areas we've identified.

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I was in MATS MX and TAC and PACAF as FE and I never was anywhere that CC's or FE's taxied. As a MX troop I was runup qualified on 130's and 133's but after I became an FE I never again did a run-up. Just my experience!

I started out at Pope in MX in December 1963. USAF had prohibited anyone but pilots from taxiing ANY airplane with more than two engines. I believe a pilot could taxi with an engineer (but remember that a pilot and engineer was the published minimum crew for emergency operations.)

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I've got my doubts that crew chiefs were authorized to taxi airplanes at Langley. I was in maintenance at Pope in 64 until I cross-trained and no one on the flight line was authorized to taxi. If an airplane needed to be moved for a run-up, etc., it was towed. When Meyer went down, I was at Clark and crew chiefs weren't taxiing airplanes there either. Meyer had a civilian pilots license, however, and some of the pilots he had flown with had let him in the pilot's seat (I had pilots let me in the seat too for that matter.) When the news came out about the incident, I was in-country on the shuttle and the pilot I was flyng with had just come over from Langley. I believe his name was Ewert. The story came out in Stars and Stripes with Meyer's picture and the crew was discussing it on the intercom. The pilot commented that he had let Meyer in the pilots seat a number of times. I've seen the report of the incident - I think I still have it somewhere. Meyer had gone out the night before and got stinking drunk and was probably still drunk when he took off. He had been patched through to his wife and was talking to her when contact was lost. His last words to her were "Looks like I've got a problem. I'll be back as soon as I deal with it." This leads me to believe a light had come on or something. I've got over 16,000 hours as a pilot with more than 10,000 of that in high-performance transport category airplanes. Meyer was in an airplane that was designed to be flown by a minimum of two people, either two pilots or a pilot and a flight mechanic. My guess is he got into trouble and the airplane went out of control, possibly into a spin. His "looks like I've got a problem" could have referred to anything, but one of those things could have been that he had bled off airspeed and was approaching a stall. Pieces of the airplane were found in the English Channel off of the French coast.

www.sammcgowan.com/meyers.html. This link is to the USAF accident report of the Meyers incident. I think I mentioned it on here before but Bob Patterson told me in 2012 that he personally briefed TAC commander Gen. W.W. Momyer on the incident. Bob believes Meyer passed out from hypoxia. As for him being headed anywhere, this more a myth than anything, He actually meandered all over England for TWO HOURS and was in and out of thunderstorms. The man was drunk as a skunk and probably had no idea what he was doing when he took the airplane off.

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I started out at Pope in MX in December 1963. USAF had prohibited anyone but pilots from taxiing ANY airplane with more than two engines. I believe a pilot could taxi with an engineer (but remember that a pilot and engineer was the published minimum crew for emergency operations.)

I was prepping my acft for a tow at Lockbourne AFB on a nice sunny July day.I heard a car pull up to the acft.A guy steps aboard in 505's and a "C" cap.It's our new squadron cmdr.(OMS)He'd come to us from the 41st TCS after a heart murmur was discovered and he was grounded.He was an excellent pilot,flight cmdr. in the 41'st and an excellent officer.He said to me "your'er getting ready to tow?".I said "yes sir",he said "I'll taxi",I said "ok,I'll check the inlets and tailpipes and get a fire guard"

We went through the check list with me reading it and doing both the C/P and eng. items and him doing the AC items.2 and 3 are on speed,gens. are on line,all is good.I left the flt.deck,closed the crew door,back to the flt.deck, Tower cleared us,ground

man waved us out and off we go.No sweat.I hoped that the major would get back on flt. status.If he'd stayed on status he would have made full col.without a doubt.So sometimes a taxi was done with even less than a minimum crew.